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Information about Italia (roman Province)

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A portion of the Tabula Peutingeriana, a Roman map of the 4th century, depicting the southern part of Italia.


Italia, under the Roman Republic and later Empire, was the name of the Italian peninsula.

Under the Republic and Augustan organization

During the Republic, Italia (which extended at the time from Rubicon to Calabria) was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status: for example, military commanders were not allowed to bring their armies within Italia, and Julius Caesar passing the Rubicon with his legions marked the start of the civil war.

The name Italia covered a portion of Italy that changed through time. According to Strabo (Geographia, v 1), at the beginning the name indicated the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto; later Italia was extended to include the whole Italian peninsula, as well as the Istrian town of Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola); finally, Julius Caesar gave Roman citizenship to the people of the Gallia Transpadana— that part of Cisalpine Gaul that lay "beyond the Po"—, thus extending Italia up to the Alps.

With the end of the Social war (2nd century BC), Rome allowed the Italian allies to enter with full rights in the Roman society, giving the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples.

At the beginning of the Empire, Italia was a collection of territories with different statuses. Some cities, called municipii, had some independence from Rome, others, the colonies, were founded by the Romans themselves. Around 7 BC, Augustus Caesar divided Italia into eleven regiones, as reported by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (iii 46):
  • Regio I Latium et Campania
  • Regio II Apulia et Calabria
  • Regio III Lucania et Brutii
  • Regio IV Samnium
  • Regio V Picenum
  • Regio VI Umbria et Ager Gallicus
  • Regio VII Etruria
  • Regio VIII Aemilia
  • Regio IX Liguria
  • Regio X Venetia et Histria
  • Regio XI Transpadana
The Italian "province" was privileged by Augustus and his heirs, with the construction, among other public structures, of a dense mesh of roads. The Italian economy flourished: agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, allowing the export of goods to the other provinces. The Italian population grew as well: Three census were ordered by Augustus, to record the presence of male citizens in Italia. They were 4,063,000 in 28 BC, 4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD 14. Including the women and the children, the total population of Italia at the beginning of the 1st century was around 10 million.

Italia in 2nd and 3rd centuries

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In this sestertius of Antoninus Pius, the personification of Italia is depicted on reverse.


When the Roman citizenship was given to all the Empire, the Italian province started its decline, in favour of richer provinces. Furthermore, Italia suffered from the attacks of barbarian tribes, that happened at the end of the 3rd century (see Crisis of the third century and Barracks emperors).

Diocletian divided the Empire into four parts (dioceses). The diocesis Italiae, ruled by the Augustus of the West, was divided into two zones, each divided into smaller territories held by correctores:
  • Italia suburbicaria ("under the government of Rome")
  • Tuscia et Umbria
  • Valeria
  • Campania et Samnium
  • Apulia et Calabria
  • Sicilia
  • Sardinia et Corsica
  • Italia annonaria, with capital Mediolanum (Milan)
  • Venetia et HistriaThe aim of the research is to study the production of textiles in the Regio X Venetia et Histria during the Roman period, working from the identification, examination and analysis of all historical and archaeological sources. The latter include the excavated remains of tools and utensils used in the making and dyeing of threads and fabrics.
The Roman textile economy was based on a complex chain processing structure which already featured many of the technical and organizational characteristics found in mediaeval textile production, with domestic weaving playing a relatively small part overall.

Strabo and Pliny the Elder both underlined the importance of fibre and fabric production in certain parts of the Regio X: Padua exported garments to markets throughout the Italic provinces and was famous for the production of gausapa, a particularly heavy material with a thick nap; Padua and Verona were also renowned for a warm woollen fabric called lodix. White wool of excellent quality and high cost was made at Altino and there was a guild of vestiarii or clothing manufacturers and merchants at Aquileia. Funeral and other inscriptions throughout the Regio X use specific terms for several of the various craftsmen and merchants involved, including vestiarii, lanarii, purpurarii (purple dyers), and lintiarii (linen weavers).

The results of the study are contained in a research report by FABIO VICARI (1997), Produzione, commercio e consumo dei tessuti nelle Venezie romane (Regio X, Venetia et Histria) [Production, trade and consumption of fabrics in Roman “Venice” (Regio X, Venetia et Histria)]. This original contribution to the history of the Venice region in Roman times (no other comprehensive study of the economics of fabrics appears in the bibliography) may be consulted on request in the library of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche. The former Italian regions of Alpes Poenninae and Alpes Maritimae become part of the Diocesis Galliarum.

Italia in 4th and 5th centuries

When the barbarians became the most important problem, the Emperors were obliged to move out of Rome, and even in other provinces, thus increasing even more the decline of Italia. In 330, Constantine I moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople, with the imperial court, economical administration, as well as the military structures (as the fleets of Misenum and Ravenna).

After the death of emperor Theodosius (395), Italia became part of the Western Roman Empire. Then came the years of the barbarian invasions, and the capital was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna (402). Alaric, king of Visigoths, sacks Rome itself in 403, after seven centuries from the last sack. Northern Italia is attacked by Attila's Huns, and Rome is sacked again by the Visigoths under the command of Alaric I in 410.

According to Notitia Dignitatum, a compilation of public civil and military officers that is considered updated to 420s for the western part of the Roman Empire, Italia was governed by a prefectus, Prefectus praetorio Italiae (who governed Italia, Illyricum and Africa), one vicarius, and one comes rei militaris. The regions were governed by eight consulares (Venetiae et Histriae, Aemiliae, Liguriae, Flaminiae et Piceni annonarii, Tusciae et Umbriae, Piceni suburbicarii, Campaniae, and Siciliae), two correctores (Apuliae et Calabriae and Lucaniae et Bruttiorum) and four praesides (Alpium Cottiarum, Samnii, Sardiniae, and Corsicae).

With the Emperors controlled by their barbarian generals, the imperial government weakly controlled Italia, whose coasts were continuously under attack. In 476, with the death of Romulus Augustus and the return of the imperial ensigns to Constantinoples, the Western Roman Empire ends; for few years Italia stayed united under Odoacer rule, but later it was divided between several kingdoms, and would not be re-united for another thirteen centuries.

See also

References

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Roman Imperial Provinces (AD 120)
Achaea
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Roman Empire






Calypso is the coolest Bxtch -Duhh-

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Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. The republican period began with the overthrow of the Monarchy c.
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The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. This article however is about the latter.
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Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula (Italian: Penisola italiana or Penisola appenninica) is one of the greatest peninsulas of Europe, spanning 1,000 km from the Alps in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in
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"Rubicon" (Rubicō, Italian: Rubicone) is a 29km long river in northern Italy. The river flows from the Appennines to the Adriatic sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region between the towns of Rimini and Cesena.
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Regione Calabria


Map highlighting the location of Calabria in Italy

Capital Catanzaro
President Agazio Loiero
(PDM-Union)
Provinces Catanzaro
Cosenza
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Reggio Calabria
Vibo Valentia
Comuni 409
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province (Latin, provincia, pl. provinciae) was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy (circa 296), largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italian peninsula (long without full citizenship).
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Comune di Roma

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Nickname: "The Eternal City"
Motto: "Senatus Populusque Romanus" (SPQR)   (Latin)
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Gaius Julius Caesar
Dictator of the Roman Republic

Reign October, 49 BC–March 15, 44 BC
Full name Gaius Julius Caesar
Born 12 July 100 BC - 102 BC
Rome, Roman Republic
Died 15 March 44 BC (aged 57)
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Strabo[1] (Greek: Στράβων; 63/64 BC – ca. AD 24) was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. He is mostly famous for his 17-volume work Geographica
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Strait of Messina is the narrow section of water between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria. At its narrowest point it measures 3.1 km (1.9 miles) in breadth, though near the town of Messina the breadth is more on the order of 5.1 km (3.2 miles).
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Country Italy
Region Campania
Province Salerno (SA)
Mayor Vincenzo De Luca (since June 2006)

Area km
Population
 - Total (as of December 31, 2005)
 - Density /km

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The Gulf of Taranto (Italian: Golfo di Taranto, Latin: Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian Sea, in southern Italy.

The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, 140 km long and wide, and is delimited by the capes Santa Maria di Leuca
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Istria (Croatian and Slovenian: Istra, Venetian and Italian: Istria), formerly Histria (Latin), is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner.
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Pula (Latin Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola; Italian Pola (the city has an official Croatian-Italian bilingualism [1]); Istriot Pula, German Polei
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Cisalpine Gaul (Latin: Gallia Cisalpina, meaning "Gaul on this side of the Alps") was the Roman name for a geographical area (later a province of the Roman Republic), in the territory of modern-day northern Italy (including Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria,
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The 2nd century BC started the first day of 200 BC and ended the last day of 101 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, although depending on the region being studied, other terms may be more proper (for instance, if regarding only the Eastern Mediterranean, it would best
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Ancient Italic peoples are all those peoples that lived in Italy before the Roman domination. Not all of these various peoples are linguistically or ethnically closely related.
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A municipium (pl. municipia) belonged to the second highest class of Roman cities, being inferior in status to the colonia. The first municipium was Tusculum. The distinguishing characteristic of the municipium was self-governance.
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1st century BC - 1st century
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Augustus Caesar
Emperor of the Roman Empire

Reign January 16 27 BC – August 19 AD 14
Full name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
Born September 23, 63 BC
Rome, Roman Republic
Died August 19, AD 14 (age 76)
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Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, (AD 23 – August 24, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia.
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Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia written circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder.

Table of contents

In its present form the Natural History consists of 37 books,

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The Roman region of Umbria, Regio VI Umbria et ager Gallicus, was one of the eleven regions into which Augustus divided Italy; it is named after a proto-Italic people, the Umbri, who were gradually subjected by the Romans in the 4th through the 2nd centuries BC.
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1st century BC - 1st century
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This article is about the year 14.

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The 1st century was that century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Gregorian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period
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The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era.

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After the death of Commodus in the previous century the Roman Empire was plunged into a civil war.
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Crisis of the Third Century (also known as the "Military Anarchy" or the "Imperial Crisis") is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284 caused by three simultaneous crises: external invasion, internal civil war, and
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A Barracks emperor was a Roman Emperor who seized power by virtue of his command of the army. Barracks emperors were especially common in the period from 235 through 284, during the Crisis of the Third Century.
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